Understanding the Linguistic miracle of the Quran

The purpose of this website to show the Qur’anic miracle and it's inimitability which lies at the heart of the Qur’an’s claim to being a revelation from Allah (swt).
“If you are in doubt of what We have revealed to Our messenger, then produce one chapter like it. Call upon all your helpers, besides Allah, if you are truthful” Qur'an 2:23.

Jul 29, 2015

A common question I get asked by students is "How can I read and
understand Arabic fluently without the harakat (Vowel marks)?". It will
probably come as little surprise to most students that this process will take
years and years of dedicated study. I have included advice for students who want to achieve this goal biithnillah ( with the permission of Allah).

Intention and aim

We all need to ask Allah to help us in any task we undertake. There is nothing difficult if
Allah makes it easy for one. One of the ways he makes something easy is to create a desire for it. The majority of people learning Arabic today are Muslims who want to understand the Quran. Students with lofty aims and aspiration reach their
desired goal more than often. I remember once hearing a university professor
speaking about how to learn a language in a short space of time and one of the
key ingredients he mentioned was to make the language relevant to oneself. If
wanting to know what the Creator of the Universe is telling us is not enough of a motivation,
then I don’t know what is!

"Ya Allah, Make us of those who learn the Quran and teach it to others for your sake, Ameen!"

Increase you vocabulary

Like with any language, increasing ones vocabulary is essential in
order to understand what one reads. If you read a text and come across a word
or two that you don’t understand then make it a habit to check the meaning of
the word(s) in a dictionary. If the word is derived from a triliteral root then
memorize this 3 letter root and the meaning that it holds. Use the newly
acquired word in a sentence and write it down for future reference.

Arabic Grammar and Morphology

Understanding meaning of words and phrases alone is insufficient and one needs to have a firm
grasp of Arabic grammar and Morphology. I will illustrate this point with a few
examples:

There are words which change meanings with a change of a vowel mark
. An example of this is the active and passive participle of a number of verb
forms e.g. مُفْعِلand مُفْعَل(The former is
used for one performing the act of أفْعَلَ and the later is the the recipient of this action.

We also can look at certain aspects of words like definiteness and
indefiniteness. If we have two consecutive nouns which match in definiteness,
number and gender then chances are we are dealing with a صفة / موصوفrelationship. If you have an indefinite noun followed by a definite
noun then chances are there is an إضافة( possessive case) relationship and so on....

In Arabic we have a triliteral base system for the overwhelming
majority of words. An important skill that will come with time is identifying base letters and extraneous letters ( ا,ء, ن, م, و, ي, ت etc.).

Don’t jump in the deep end immediately

A common mistake made by students is to believe they should be able
to read Arabic texts without harakat after completing a 6 or 12 month course of
Arabic grammar and Morphology. Knowing grammar and morphological rules can only
take you so far. I had a student ask me once that if he learns more advanced grammar and
balagha texts, whether this would make him more proficient in reading. I
explained to him that this is not the case, because reading is a completely
different skill than learning grammatical rules, especially if these rules are
only used in ancient poetry and the Quran.

What is crucial is understanding what one reads. If you are not
understanding Arabic texts with harakat then here are few steps you need
to take before stepping up to read without
harakat.

When you initially start reading texts with no vowels then it can
be quite difficult at first. The most important aspect to reading anything is
understanding what one reads. Start off with simple children books that have harakat on them
and that are translated into English or a language you are proficient with:

As an exercise go through the Arabic and try to understand what is
being said. Check how your understanding compares to the translation. Identify
any weakness you might have, whether its limited vocabulary, inability to
identify the main parts of the sentence, problems with weak letters etc.

This is a children book that one can use to try this. It can be downloaded HERE

After a while, try this again with more advanced books such as الرحيق المختوم (Al raheeq Al
makhtoom) a book of Seerah of the Prophet ( peace be upon him) or any other translated book. There are many translations out there
so you have a wide range to choose from.

NOTE: reading without harakat is a process that will occur gradually and
will not come overnight.

I have provided a sample section of a children's story book
entitled: طالوت و جالوت

Try translating the text yourself and compare it with the
translation I have provided ( in some cases a word for word translation was not
possible) .

Banu Israeel went to their Prophet one day and asked him: "Are
we not oppressed?"

He answered " Most certainly you are"

They said "Are we not Musharadeen (those who have fled out of
fear)?"

He answered " Most certainly you are"

They said "Assign for us a king who will unite us under his
flag so that we can fight in the path of Allah and reclaim our land and honor:

Their Prophet said, and he was more aware regarding them " Are
you capable of (i.e. do you know what you are getting yourself into) fighting
if fighting is prescribed upon you?"

They said "And why should we not fight in the path of Allah
when we have certainly been removed from out of our homes, and our sons have
fled for their lives, and our state is calamitous"

Their Prophet said " Certainly, Allah has chosen for you
Taloot as a king (to rule) over you"

Practice Often

Like with all things, practice makes perfect! You can't expect to
read well if you don’t do it often. Try different types of texts from a
wide variety of topics and authors.

A teacher

Having a teacher to guide you along is important and in many cases
can save you plenty of time. The Sibaway Institute aims to
provide students with all the prerequisites so that they are able to read and
understand Arabic texts proficiently.

An educational institute dedicated to the propagation of the Arabic language.

Jun 4, 2015

One of the First concepts taught in Basic Arabic Grammar is the subject of Indefiniteness of nouns. Indefiniteness is usually represented by tanween and the removal of the Alif and Laam of definiteness at the beginning of a word . It usually signifies that a noun is unknown or undefined.

اشتَرَيْتُ كِتَاباً I bought a book.

مَرَرْتُ بِرَجُلٍ I passed by a man

It is unknown which book I bought and which man I passed by.

But that's only the tip of the iceberg!

When one studies more advanced books of Grammar and delves into the science of Rhetoric then things get more complicated, but interesting at the same time.Indefiniteness, as Explained by the Scholars of Rhetoric, can have many possible meanings and the only limit is ones own imagination.

One of the ways which Ancient Arabs used it was to magnify something. In other words, something is so great that one is unable to define it by making it definite. It is as if, it has no limit. With this meaning we could translate the following sentence as

مَرَرْتُ بِرَجُلٍ I passed by a GREAT man

This meaning would be applicable if the context mentioned the great qualities this man.
Another example is the word كِتَاباً in the ayah mentioned in the following short video lesson. If you notice, Indefiniteness is used to magnify the Quran.

I have explained this topic along with many others, giving examples from both inside and outside the Quran, in the following Course:

For those who would like to spend time studying Arabic and the Quran linguistic miracle we have a number of courses available on our institute website. We also have Premium membership for those who would like complete access to all our courses for relaxed, self paced study.

May Allah ( Ta'ala) make your studies easy and may He grant you success in this life and the hereafter.